State Benefits
All students
If you claim or receive benefits, you must tell the relevant benefit office/DWP department that you are a student and provide evidence of your student income as these are both changes in your circumstances. This may affect your benefit entitlement.
For further information about claiming benefits as a student you can check out information on the following websites:
Welfare benefits
You may be able to claim welfare benefits if you are between 18 years old and retirement age, have UK nationality, ‘settled’, or ‘refugee’ status, or are an EU or EEA national (subject to other conditions that also apply).
There are essentially two types of benefits:
- Means-tested benefits, (mainly Universal Credit) for those who are short of income
- Benefits for specific circumstances, such as maternity or disability
Postgraduate students who receive either the SFE Postgraduate masters/doctoral Loan
When working out your Universal Credit, 30% of the loan is taken into account as student income. The rest is ignored. As a result, this will reduce or cancel out your Universal credit award paid to you. Different types of bank or study loans can also reduce your benefits.
Please find information about Students and Benefits on Universal Credit and students - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Benefits during an interruption from study
Full-time students on an interruption of study still count as full-time students for benefits purposes. Whether you can get benefits during a break in study depends on the reason for taking time out and the benefit concerned.
If you are successfully claiming a means-tested benefit such as Universal Credit, a legacy benefit such as Housing Benefit, Income Support, income-based Jobseeker's Allowance or income-related Employment and Support Allowance, you can still claim them during your time out from study, subject to their other criteria.
Illness or caring responsibilities
If you are on an interruption of study due to illness or being a carer whose situation has recovered, but you are waiting to restart study, you can claim Universal Credit.
Pregnancy and Parenthood
Single parents and sole carers (including some foster carers) can still claim Universal Credit while being a registered student. This includes periods of interruption. Being on an interruption of study does not affect the entitlement to the variety of allowances that may be assessable before and/or after the expected time of birth. These benefits and their eligibility are laid out at gov.uk
The above information is correct at the time of writing, however due to continuous changes to state benefits we strongly recommend seeking advice from gov.uk or trained specialists at either your local Citizens Advice Bureau or Salford Welfare Rights.
Useful resources